Scroll saws are particular useful for cutting decorative two-dimensional figures from sheets of wood. This ability is in part due to use of an elongate scroll saw blade which is small in cross-section and can make accurate curvateous cuts.
For example, use of a scroll saw allows a face having a pair of spaced eyes, a nose and a mouth to be accurately cut from a sheet of wood. In present practice, to cut out a shaped aperture, such as a smiling mouth, a small hole is first drilled in the sheet of wood. A scroll saw blade is then inserted through the sheet with the ends of the blade projecting on either side of the sheet. The ends are secured by clamps which are in turn retained by support arms of the scroll saw. The desired shape is then cut from the sheet. The ends of the blade are then released from the clamps and the blade is removed from the shaped aperture. The aforementioned steps must be repeated for each aperture which is to be cut in of the sheet.
Consequently, a great deal of time is spent fastening and unfastening blades to and from the clamps. Unfortunately, many clamps for scroll saw blades are not easily and quickly fastenable and unfastenable relative to the scroll saw blades. Further, separate tools are generally required to fasten the clamp to the blades.
Clamps securing scroll saw blades are shown in a variety of U.S. patents. For example, Rice et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,138, discloses a clamp having a pair of blocks with interfacing flat surfaces which are clamped together by a screw. The screw is received into a pair of threaded apertures in the blocks. The screw has a head with a hexagonal aperture designed to receive an end of an Allen wrench. The Allen wrench provides sufficient torque to threadedly join the screw and flat surfaces together about the end of the blade. An alignment pin is also used to connect the blocks.
Legler et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,652, shows a clamp having a pair of members which clamp about the end of a blade. A screw is shown which has a head configured to receive the blade of a straight-edged screwdriver. Again, this reference requires a separate tool to provide tightening of the screw within threaded apertures of the clamping members.
Unfortunately, as is the case with any separate tool, the tool may become misplaced or lost. Accordingly, search time is added to the time already required to change blades into and out of the scroll saw. The subject invention addresses these shortcomings.